AppleTV Event Client for Linux in development...

Evinyatar · 2009-12-07 00:05

Alrighty then... just finished packaging my AppleTV event client for Linux. Sources are here. Download, untar, ./configure && make && sudo make install. Some source code borrowed from ATVTool 0.2 so lots of credit there.
What currently works; reading IR commands and sending them to XBMC, and emulating the standard LED behaviour (white unless an IR command is being received).
What doesn't work yet; pairing the remote. It currently sends the notifications to XBMC when you pair, but it doesn't actually pair yet. Also, "universal mode". I haven't really figured out how that's supposed to work.
Please let me know if you notice any differences in behaviour with XBMCHelper on AppleTV OS, or any problems whatsoever.

andrereis · 2009-12-07 02:45

Evinyatar, the file name is "atvclient-0.1.1.tar.gz" but the archive is not gzipped, I spent a couple of minutes figuring out why "tar xzvf" wouldn't decompress it Eek

Better change the extension to just .tar, or gzip it. Will try it now, looks promising!

andrereis · 2009-12-07 03:00

Well, some first experiences. Compiles and runs well here, the light is white and shuts off when a button is pressed. But XBMC doesn't move, regrettably. I'm running atvclient as root and xbmc as an unprivileged user (lirc is off). What should we look for in the logs for hints to why this is happening?

I'll make a feature request too: if you could let the user choose the active/receiving LED colors it'd be really great. Personally, I'd like at least to be able to choose the low-intensity white, and if it could turn red when the remote was talking, well that would be really awsome. But the low-intensity version would be good for my (very) dark room Smile

Philmatic · 2009-12-07 05:19

Running 1.1 here, compiled fine, seems to start up fine, and button presses are being received by the ATV, but nothing registers with XBMC.

Startup:

Code:

xbmc@xbmc:~$ sudo atvclient

Creating socket...

Preparing button map...

Ready!

Key-presses:

Up:

Code:

25 87 ee 24 0b

Up

1 8db20c0

Down:

Code:

25 87 ee 24 0d

Down

2 8db2118

Left:

Code:

25 87 ee 24 08

Left

3 8db2188

Right:

Code:

25 87 ee 24 07

Right

4 8db21f8

Play/Pause:

Code:

25 87 ee 24 04

Play/pause

5 8db2268

Menu:

Code:

25 87 ee 24 02

Menu

6 8db22d8

Holding Play/Pause

Code:

26 87 ee 24 04

Play/pause hold

7 90ef348

Holding Menu:

Code:

26 87 ee 24 02

Menu hold

8 90ef3b8

Evinyatar · 2009-12-07 10:28

Hmm... for some reason you have to start atvclient after xbmc (and if it was already running, restart xbmc after stopping atvclient). Otherwise xbmc won't pick up the events. I'll have to look into that later.

Evinyatar · 2009-12-07 11:27

Fixed it. Silly mistake. I set up a GitHub repo at http://github.com/Evinyatar/atvclient which now contains the latest version.

Evinyatar · 2009-12-07 11:31

andrereis Wrote:I'll make a feature request too: if you could let the user choose the active/receiving LED colors it'd be really great. Personally, I'd like at least to be able to choose the low-intensity white, and if it could turn red when the remote was talking, well that would be really awsome. But the low-intensity version would be good for my (very) dark room

That sounds like a useful addition. After the code cleanup and remote pairing that'll be the first thing I implement Smile

pouldam · 2009-12-08 00:05

Just downloaded and compiled it. However, when launching it, it just hangs and does not respond to key presses on the remote.

atv@atv:~$ sudo /usr/local/sbin/atvclient
Creating socket...
Preparing button map...
Paired to: 0
Ready!

Any idea? -- guess it has something to do with the pairing, but I have no idea how to do that.

Evinyatar · 2009-12-08 08:37

Paired to 0 means it's not paired so that shouldn't be an issue. Does the led turn white when you start atvclient? Did you run it as root? Have you tried rebooting? If it still fails, pastebin me the output of dmesg and lsusb -v

pouldam · 2009-12-09 00:49

Evinyatar Wrote:Paired to 0 means it's not paired so that shouldn't be an issue. Does the led turn white when you start atvclient? Did you run it as root? Have you tried rebooting? If it still fails, pastebin me the output of dmesg and lsusb -v

OK, got it working now -- made a stupid error :o

Can this util be used somehow if you want to use another remote with more buttons (e.g. from an old DVD player) or is atvtool combined with LIRC the way to go then?

andrereis Junior Member Posts: 30 Joined: Sep 2009 Reputation: 0	2009-12-07 02:45 Post: #2 Evinyatar, the file name is "atvclient-0.1.1.tar.gz" but the archive is not gzipped, I spent a couple of minutes figuring out why "tar xzvf" wouldn't decompress it Better change the extension to just .tar, or gzip it. Will try it now, looks promising!
	find quote

Evinyatar Member Posts: 58 Joined: Feb 2008 Reputation: 0 Location: Belgium	2009-12-07 10:28 Post: #5 Hmm... for some reason you have to start atvclient after xbmc (and if it was already running, restart xbmc after stopping atvclient). Otherwise xbmc won't pick up the events. I'll have to look into that later.
	find quote

Evinyatar Member Posts: 58 Joined: Feb 2008 Reputation: 0 Location: Belgium	2009-12-07 11:27 Post: #6 Fixed it. Silly mistake. I set up a GitHub repo at http://github.com/Evinyatar/atvclient which now contains the latest version.
	find quote

pouldam Member Posts: 61 Joined: May 2009 Reputation: 0	2009-12-08 00:05 Post: #8 Just downloaded and compiled it. However, when launching it, it just hangs and does not respond to key presses on the remote. atv@atv:~$ sudo /usr/local/sbin/atvclient Creating socket... Preparing button map... Paired to: 0 Ready! Any idea? -- guess it has something to do with the pairing, but I have no idea how to do that.
	find quote

Evinyatar Member Posts: 58 Joined: Feb 2008 Reputation: 0 Location: Belgium	2009-12-08 08:37 Post: #9 Paired to 0 means it's not paired so that shouldn't be an issue. Does the led turn white when you start atvclient? Did you run it as root? Have you tried rebooting? If it still fails, pastebin me the output of dmesg and lsusb -v
	find quote